Tourism office on Huron Church Road to stay open another year

The regional tourism office on Huron Church Road will re-open in April for another 12 months.

The announcement came on Friday, a day before the office was set to close for good.

“This is a perfect example of multiple levels of government cooperating to deliver service,” said Coun. Drew Dilkens, who sits on the board of Tourism Windsor Essex Pelee Island.

“It generates dollars in the community,” he said.

The office was scheduled to close permanently on Saturday afternoon as per a previous agreement between the tourism authority and the province. In the last few months, however, Dilkens and Gordon Orr, the CEO of Tourism Windsor Essex Pelee Island, urged local MPP Teresa Piruzza to help them find a way to keep the office open.

They argued that since the Ambassador Bridge is the busiest border crossing between Canada and the U.S., it doesn’t make sense to close the office and send tourists all the way to Tillbury, where the Ontario government opened its provincial tourism office.

Under the new agreement, Tourism Windsor Essex Pelee Island is responsible for providing staff for the office and paying their wages, while the province – which owns the building – will be responsible for the building costs. Orr said it costs between $40,000 and $60,000 to staff the office. The rent would be upwards of $90,000, he said, and without the government’s help, the tourism authority couldn’t afford to pay it.

Orr explained that the tourism office will close temporarily on Saturday for a few weeks while Tourism Windsor Essex Pelee Island determines what hours and days it should stay open. There are two part-time staff currently working there, Orr said. Their positions will be terminated, but once the new operating hours are determined, they are welcome to re-apply to work there, he said.

Changing the hours of the Huron Church Road office is part of a bigger plan to redevelop how tourism information is delivered, Orr said. The tourism authority will also look at its tourist information kiosk at Caesars, he said, and is also considering options such as electronic information kiosks. Over the next year – while the tourism office on Huron Church Road stays open – Tourism Windsor Essex Pelee Island will develop a business plan outlining how it will deliver tourism information going forward, Orr said.

About 14,000 people visited the tourism office on Huron Church Road last year. About 3.6 million people visit Windsor and Essex County annually, according to a statement by Piruzza’s office.

Orr added that the office on Huron Church Road can also help inform visitors about the construction of the Windsor-Essex Parkway, the construction that’s going on, and the importance of the project, which is one of the biggest the provincial government has ever taken on.

In a statement on Friday, Piruzza said that tourism remains a critical element in the success of Windsor and Essex County. “Windsor Essex has overcome many challenges in the recent past and I am proud to support the recent developments,” she said.

In its budget earlier this week, the provincial government indicated it would close some tourism offices to save money.

“It’s nice to see that this isn’t just another tourism centre,” Dilkens said. “It’s the gateway to Canada, the gateway to Ontario and the gateway to Windsor.”

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